Chinatown

Commercial and former residential section of northern Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, just south of Gastow, north and east of the modern Downtown and centred on Pender Street. A tourist and business zone, the Vancouver district is one of North America's oldest and largest Chinatowns.

Chinese miners were in the province by the time of the 1858 Cariboo gold rush. The area swelled in the 1880s with Canadian Pacific Railway workers; until 1947 its residents faced restrictions on living elsewhere in the city. Much of Vancouver's Chinese population lives in other sections, including Strathcona, in the East End; among recent arrivals are many emigrants from Hong Kong, who have brought wealth and other resources to the city.